Library History

St. Louis Junior College in 1955 had limited space for its initial 31 students. In 1957 the junior college became 4-year Chaminade College and the library was housed in the center area of the third floor in Henry Hall. In 1977 Chaminade College of Honolulu became Chaminade University of Honolulu and the library expanded to include the second floor with the generous support of Maurice Sullivan, founder of Foodland Super Market in Hawaii. The library was renamed Sullivan Library in 1978 in his honor. In 1990, with the addition of first-floor space, the entire three floors in the center area of Henry Hall were devoted to the library. In 2002, the first floor of the library was closed off to create a classroom but more space was added to the third floor in the form of a gallery and periodical room. The library had grown to about 9,000 square feet by this time. In 2004, some of the third floor library space was renovated to create offices for faculty of the Humanities Division.

In 2008 with enrollment at 2,701, a new library building was completed with the support of the Sullivan family and Atlantic Philanthropies. It was named the Sullivan Family Library and was dedicated on April 25 of that year. The new library was the largest academic building constructed on the Chaminade campus since it opened in 1955. It took two years to build at a cost of almost $15 million. The three-story, 30,000 square foot building houses the library and technology departments of the university. It features a 40-workstation computer lab, multimedia group study rooms, a technology training lab and an instructional support room for faculty.

The library takes up 22,000 of the total square footage of the building. The shelving is designed to hold a maximum of 100,000 volumes. Electronic holdings are available online to Chaminade affiliated users with proper authentication. The library also includes an audiovisual collection. Wireless network access is available for users with their own laptops or for those who wish to borrow one of the laptops for use in the library.